Story - The Meade County Messenger


Vol. 114, No. 35	August 29, 2007

Special meeting is on horizon to assess fire budgetary issues

By LARRY SEE JR.
Messenger Staff

A special meeting to discuss fire district budget issues is nearing, but a date hasn’t been set.

The issue was raised, as it has been during the past three months, by fire district treasurer James Anthony.

Anthony claims the board is still doing well, as far as expenditures are concerned, but urged the members to continue saving, to hold the funds aside for special circumstances.

Fire board chairman Martin Bosemer, throughout the conversation, repeatedly stated the matter should be discussed during a special session.

“You keep bringing up this $100,000 (savings),” Bosemer said. “I think we need to hold this for a special session. The information you are stating is just your opinion and we need to have all the board present.”

All board members were present at the Aug. 20 meeting.

“You need to have the board members here and you need to speak as a board,” Bosemer said.

Anthony asked a budgetary question of the auditor and was told separate line items were appreciated, but not required.

“We’re not a public corproation and I think we should reserve that discussion for budget time,” Bosemer said.

At an earlier meeting, Anthony warned board members they needed to watch cash flow, especially since tax revenues aren’t expected until later.

Anthony said the auditor, who audits area school districts, would be unavailable to discuss the fire audit until November. He agreed to see if he might be available earlier to address specific concerns.

“We’ll have that discussion later,” Bosemer said.

Bosemer added discussion of a new fire department building to the special session agenda.

“I think that’s a good idea,” trustee Bruno Ilario said. “I think we need to have the auditor there too.”

“We can have a special meeting and see if he’ll be there,” Bosemer said. “That way he can answer all of our questions at the same time.”

Bosemer reiterated the matter be dealt with during a special meeting. He also said budget matters shouldn’t be addressed unless on the agenda.

Following further conversation, Bosemer closed the issue by saying “we’ll discuss it later sir.”

In other business, members learned a Federal Emergency Management Act grant was denied.

Fire chief Larry Naser said he thought a lot of departments needed fire trucks and there was only a small percentage of funds awarded this year.

Members did authorize Naser to submit a grant for training. Naser estimated he would seek about $52,000 from the program. There is no match requirement.

In other business, members:

• Approved spending $1,500 for fire prevention training materials for Meade County students. Fire prevention week is traditionally the first week in October, but the district will hold sessions during the second week, following the fall break.

• Learned the average time from dispatch to arrival at fire scenes was nine minutes.

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